Ning Ning, Infant Orangutan, Malaysia

Ning Ning, Infant Orangutan

Ning Ning, Portrait # 1

I was walking with my wife, Lee, when we first met Ning Ning in a park near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Ning Ning and her keeper were walking hand in hand down a path, Ning Ning being restrained only by the keeper's hold on her hand. When we stopped to talk to the keeper, the small three-year-old orangutan took Lee’s hand and pulled herself up, wanting to be held. Lee obliged, cradling Ning Ning in her arms while the small orangutan played with her necklace. I was struck by the gentleness of this infant being, and her need for nurturing. The next time we saw Ning Ning she was being mobbed by a busload of tourists, and had become quite agitated. The images here were made just afterward, as we tried to calm the infant orangutan.

Ning Ning's story, like that of all orangutans taken from the wild, is tragic. Orangutan mothers and their young can be separated only by killing the mother. Infants are taken and sold for extremely high prices. They often refuse to eat and are transported under terrible conditions. Between six and eight infants die for each one that survives.
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This cruelty, apart from the toll it takes on individual orangutans, is a death sentence for the entire specie. Female orangutans usually have only three or four offspring during their lifetime. They are biologically capable of having more, but caring for the young is so demanding that they must wait until one is matured before having another. Twins are rarely born, but when they are, one must be forsaken for the other's survival. With such a low reproduction rate and so few orangutans remaining, every individual counts.

Ning Ning, Portrait # 2

Ning Ning, Portrait # 3

Ning Ning has undoubtedly experienced unimaginable trauma in the time since her birth in the rainforest. In spite of this she remains a gentle being. Her life is no longer traumatic, but it will probably be spent captive among humans, in a world where she does not belong.

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